4-year-old girl in fiery Woodland crash dies as 13-year-old suspect pleads not guilty to murder
A 4-year-old girl has died from injuries she suffered Saturday after a 13-year-old boy, reportedly driving a stolen SUV, crashed into the girl’s family’s car and another vehicle during a police chase in Woodland.
The girl, identified by family members as Adalina Lilah Perez, died in a hospital Wednesday morning. She is the second person to die in the crash that occurred at the intersection of Court and College streets, the Woodland Police Department announced in a news release.
“She had just started school, she was so happy,” said Armando Preciado, Adalina’s uncle. “She didn’t deserve this.”
The 13-year-old boy accused of driving the stolen vehicle made his first appearance Wednesday morning in Yolo County Juvenile Court. He pleaded not guilty to a total of 13 criminal charges in connection with the crash, including two counts of murder.
Authorities have not released his name because he is a minor.
The charges include vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, evading police causing injury, vehicle theft, evading police while driving recklessly, child endangerment, driving without a license and evading police causing death. His charges include numerous enhancements for allegedly causing great bodily injury while committing the crimes, according to court documents.
Tina Vital, 43, of Woodland was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. She was the 4-year-old girl’s grandmother. Family members said Vital had just left a memorial service for a family friend hours before the crash.
Antonia Cordero, one of Vital’s relatives, created a GoFundMe online fundraiser to help her family. Another GoFundMe fundraiser was created for Adalina by her parents. Ricardo and Alyssa Perez wrote in the GoFundMe page that their daughter suffered serious injuries, which included burns, and she underwent medical procedures at the hospital in the days after the crash. They said the girl’s aunt and uncle also suffered life-threatening injuries and burns in the crash.
“Our family is in complete disbelief with this tragedy,” her parents wrote. “As her parents, whatever you can donate will be greatly appreciated as it will go to our daughter’s funeral expenses.”
Police said an officer spotted a vehicle Saturday afternoon in downtown Woodland that was being driven erratically. The officer tried to pull over the vehicle, but the driver refused to stop.
The stolen vehicle driven by the 13-year-old boy crashed into two other cars at the intersection, according to the Police Department.
There were 11 people injured in the crash; including the driver of the stolen car, four people were in one vehicle and six others were in the second vehicle struck. Photos of the crash site showed the vehicles stacked upon each other; one of them charred by flames.
Family members of the young suspect and the crash victims crowded a Yolo County courtroom as the boy, wearing a neck brace and sitting in a wheelchair, listened to the charges against him.
Martina Avalos, the boy’s Oakland-based defense attorney, asked the court to release the minor to the custody of his parents. Her request was quickly denied by a judge and met with quiet anger by Vital’s family.
Yolo Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio scheduled an April 20 detention hearing. The boy will return for a May 3 jurisdictional hearing. Until then, the teen will remain in Yolo County Juvenile Hall custody.
“I find that there is reasonable necessity to detain this minor,” Beronio said, adding the teen “is beyond parental control... The boy will be detained.”
The judge’s ruling was met by muffled sobs from one of the pews.
“This is not right. He should stay in there,” Vanessa Ramos, Adalina’s aunt, said after the hearing. “He doesn’t get to go home because they don’t get to go home.”
A family member, later identified as the boy’s mother was overcome by the moment and collapsed in the courtroom after Wednesday’s hearing. She was taken away by paramedics.
The noon church bells tolled Wednesday in downtown Woodland as if in vigil for a family awash in pain and grief. Vital’s family gathered at the site of the Woodland three-vehicle crash to try to make sense of the unthinkable and demand justice for the wreck that killed her, her granddaughter and left two other relatives critically injured.
“He murdered two people — an innocent child, an innocent mother. Two of the other family, they’re laying up in the hospital,” said Elizabeth Copete, speaking to news reporters. “This boy thinks he’s grown enough to be behind the wheel?
“This is a hurtful, horrible thing that happened.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2023 at 10:17 AM.
